The Cognitive Approach

The Cognitive Approach

The cognitive approach looks not just at what happens to a person and how they react, but also at the mediating processes in between, such as thoughts and beliefs. 

Beck (1976) described how cognitive errors can have emotional and behavioural consequences. For example, over-generalisation means taking one event (such as falling out with a friend) and assuming it applies to all situations ('nobody likes me'). An anorexic person's cognitive error is the belief that they are overweight, which then leads to excessive dieting. Beck (1976) states that depressed people have a cognitive triad of negative thoughts about themselves, the world and the future. These beliefs must be tackled in order to change a person's mood or behaviour.

Evaluation points are the the cognitive approach is hugely influential, and its models of thought processes have influenced therapy and treatment methods. Also, the approach is supported by research findings which show that thought processes are not always logical.

The main areas of study in cognitive psychology are:

- Perception (how we process images and sounds)

- Thinking (ideas, beliefs and schemas)

- Memory (retention, remembering, forgetting)

Cognitive psychology uses a lot of experiments and tends to research on humans, not animals.

Cognitive Perspective: Assumptions

Assumption 1

Our behaviour is best explained in terms of internal mental processes ie. mediational processes between stimulus and response.

Illustration of assumption 1

• Behaviourist psychologists thought that language could be explained through conditioning.

• However, linguistics researcher Chomsky (1957) stated infants use 'metal rules' such as 'add -ed to make a past tense'.

Assumption 2

The processes in the mind operate like a computer ("information processing approach") ie. inputing, storing and retrieving data- Broadbent (1958).

Illustration of assumption 2

• The multi-store model treats memory as a series of stores.

• However, artificial intelligence has proved illusive.

Assumption 3

Our thought processes and beliefs (rather than genetic factors) affect how we perceive and respond to the world. To change behaviour. thinking patterns need to be changed.

Illustration of assumption 3

• Illusions

• A-B-C model

Implications of theory

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

A client/patient works with a psychotherapist in a structured way, attending a limited number of sessions. This challenges irrational or negative thinking.

CBT techniques

1. Agenda setting- Client and therapist work together at start to agree task schedule.
2. Cognitive restructuring- replacing distortions with thoughts that are more accurate and useful
3. Reframing- situations re-interpreted more rationally (positively)
4. Homework- client is set tasks to do e.g. worksheets, diary or activities

CBT tackles irrational thinking

• Mind reading- jumping to conclusions about what others may be thinking of you.

• Catastrophising- magnifying/labelling patterns

• Overgeneralising- thinking that things always or never happen a certain way.

• Unfair judgements- continually putting yourself down/holding yourself responsible.

• Making demands- fixed, rigid rules using 'should' or 'must' statements; perfectionism.

Social Norms

Social Norms

In this view, behaviour is atypical because it goes against the norms of society, and people therefore find it 'weird'. A social norm is an unwritten rule about what is right or wrong in social behaviour. Norms depend heavily on culture, varying between countries and over time. An advantage of deviating from social norms is that it fits with everyday experience of what people see as typical. Disadvantages of deviating from social norms are that every culture or subculture will have a separate viewpoint, so no worldwide standard of mental illness can be established using this definition and there is too much reliance on one cultural view of right and wrong could lead to discrimination.

In society, there are actions which come to us naturally like shaking someone's hand. This act of kindness has been introduced to us since we were young. Everyone knows when social norms are appropriate in a situation for example when going for a job interview. Whenever you are in a job interview we know that shaking hands at the start and at the interview is deemed as being normal. Social norms take place in all kinds of situations and some of these social norms come to us naturally.

However if, shaking hands had been seen as abnormal then society wouldn't be as it is today. This is because if you are meeting someone for the first time and don't shake their hand like you would normally do, it wouldn't really matter because if no one else is doing it then why should you ? It would be seen as unnecessary. What would society be like if no one ever shook hands ? In my view it would be really different because everyone would be shy and no one would talk to each other as they do now. It would be odd but because shaking hands is an act of kindness and everyone is aware of it, our society is more pleasurable and more kind.



Memory

Memory

Human short-term memory (STM) is very limited. Miller (1956) studied its capacity and found that no matter what type of item is stored, STM could only hold between five and nine items. This became known as the 'magic number, seven plus or minus two', although recent researchers have described its capacity as the number of items which can be pronounced in just under 30 seconds. The duration of STM is also limited to around 30 seconds unless information is rehearsed (Peterson and Peterson, 1959). STM uses information which are represented in STM as sounds.

Long-term memory (LTM) is the permanent memory store: information can be encoded to LTM straight away, and can last a lifetime. There is no limit to how much can be stored. Long-term memory tends to encode information based on the meaning of an item and this form of LTM is called semantic memory. There are two other LTM stores: episodic and procedural. Episodic memory is when you remember things that have happened to you and procedural memory is your memory for skills such as playing musical instruments or riding a bike.

In both STM and LTM, information goes through a three-stage process: it is encoded into a memory trace, stored, and then retrieved when needed.

Encoding involves taking information from the senses or from another memory store and placing it into a memory code. STM uses acoustic encoding and LTM uses semantic encoding. If items are encoded visual encoding.

Storage involves retaining information to be used at a later date. Memories must be consolidated on order to be retained, for example, when revising for exams. Walker et al. (2003) found that unbroken sleep is vital to the brain processes involved in procedural memories being consolidated. The aim of the experiment was to study role of waking hours prior to sleep in learning/interference of procedural memories. 

"Although it was clear that 4-12 hours of waking did not enhance behavioural performance, we did not know whether this waking period could stabilise the motor memory".

There were 100 right-handed subjects, aged 18-27 and without psychiatric or sleep disorder histories. Subjects performed a sequential finger tapping motor skill task.

Retrieval is where information is brought back from the memory store when needed. Sometimes retrieval is difficult: things may be on the tip of your tongue. There are two types of retrieval: free recall and recognition. A cue is a hint or trigger which helps retrieval, such as the letter a word starts with.

Stress Managnement

Stress Management

Method

For this particular experiment, eighteen participants were recruited in this study. During the psychological training, one person was removed for low sensitivity and one for hypersensitivity to heat stimulation. A third was dismissed for falling asleep during the course of the meditation intervention. Therefore, fifteen healthy volunteers, six males and nine females aged between the ages of 22-35 years completed the study. All of the participants were right-handed, 13 Caucasian, one Asian and one Hispanic. They all had given written consent knowing that they would experience painful,heat stimuli, all the methods were clearly explained and they were free to withdraw from the study without prejudice.

 Psychophysical training.

The participants were all in a room at 35–49°C and had to sit there for almost 6 minutes. A 15cm plastic sliding was used to quantify pain intensity and unpleasantness. 

MRI session 1.

Subjects were positioned in the MRI scanner, a pulse oximeter was attached to each subject's left index finger to assess heart rate, and a transducer was placed around the chest to gauge respiration rate. The “heat” condition consisted of thermal stimuli that were administered in alternating patterns of heat (49°C) and neutral (35°C) with 12 s durations at each temperature (5 minutes and 55 s total duration per MRI series). They were instructed that their ratings should reflect the overall experience of the entire series.

In MRI session 1, four functional series (two heat; two neutral) were separated by a structural acquisition scan. In the first half of the experiment, participants were instructed to keep their eyes closed and restrict movement across conditions. After the structural image was obtained, participants were instructed to “meditate by focusing on the changing sensations of the breath.”

Mindfulness-based mental training.

Mindfulness-based mental training was performed in four separate, 20 min sessions conducted by a facilitator with >10 years of experience leading similar meditation regimens. Participants had no previous meditative experience and were informed that such training was secular and taught as the cognitive practice of mindfulness meditation. Each training session was held with one to three participants.

On mindfulness meditation training day 1, subjects were encouraged to sit with a straight posture, eyes closed, and to focus on the changing sensations of the breath occurring at the tips of their nostrils. Instructions emphasised acknowledging discursive thoughts and feelings and to return their attention back to the breath sensation without judgement or emotional reaction whenever such discursive events occurred. On training day 2, participants continued to focus on breath-related nostril sensations and were instructed to “follow the breath,” by mentally noting the rise and fall of the chest and abdomen. The last 10 minutes were held in silence so subjects could develop their meditative practice. On training day 3, the same basic principles of the previous sessions were reiterated. However, an audio recording of MRI scanner sounds was introduced during the last 10 minutes of meditation to familiarise subjects with the sounds of the scanner. On the final training session (day 4), subjects received minimal meditation instruction but were required to lie in the supine position and meditate with the audio recording of the MRI sounds to simulate the scanner environment. 

MRI session 2.

After successful completion of meditation training, subjects participated in MRI session 2. This session consisted of eight functional series (four heat; four neutral). After completion of the first four “rest” series, subjects were again instructed to “meditate by focusing on the changing sensations of the breath,” at which point the anatomical scan was conducted. Subjects were instructed to meditate until the end of the experiment. Four minutes after the anatomical scan, functional acquisition was resumed, and four meditation series were obtained. Evaluation of pain ratings and experimental procedures were identical to MRI session 1.

Results

Mean (SEM) psychophysical pain ratings across each session. Meditation, after training, significantly reduced pain intensity ratings and pain unpleasantness ratings when compared with rest *p < 0.05.

Brain activations and deactivations illustrate the main effects of ATB and pain in the MRI session before training. In the main effect of pain, there was greater activation in SI corresponding to the stimulation site, ACC, SII, left putamen, and bilateral insula. There was no ATB-related brain activity, but the deactivations for the main effect of meditation were found in the medial PFC, posterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and paracingulate gyrus. Slice locations correspond to standard stereotaxic space.

References

Zeidan, F, Martucci, K.T., Kraft, R.A., Gordon, N.S., McHaffie, J.G. and Coghill, R.C. (2011) Brain Mechanisms supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(14), 5540-5448.

• Fadel Zeidan
• Katherine T. Martucci
• Robert A. Kraft
• Nakia S. Gordon
• John G. Mc Haffe
• Robert C. Coghill 

Resisting the influence of cults

Resisting the influence of cults

Moral Reasoning and awareness of own values

Kolherg (1969) believed that moral development proceeds in stages throughout life. Some people never achieve thee highest stage of moral development, post-conventional reasoning, which involves an understanding that society's rules and conventions are not always morally right. An awareness of one's values, and confidence in these values, can help people to resist conformity.

Hornsey et al. (2003) found that if someone has a strongly held conviction about an issue, they are less likely to conform. In a follow up to Asch's study, Perrin and Spencer (1980) found that engineering students were much less likely to conform. This may relate to their self-confidence in their own ability to make visual judgements. Confidence is promoted in schools, and may help young people resist the pressure to abuse alcohol and drugs.

This theory helps to explain why some people act immorally, but raising people's moral development is very difficult. It is not practical as a short-term strategy.

Questioning Motives

Another factor affecting compliance is the ability to question motives. To achieve sales, certain compliance techniques are sometimes used.

The low-ball technique is similar to Milgram's obedience study- participants had agreed to take part, and didn't feel they could pull out when greater 'costs' (in terms of stress) were later revealed.

Cults are experts in using compliance techniques, making people feel that they have made a commitment that they cannot escape from. Raising awareness of these techniques makes them much less powerful.

Simply making people aware of the techniques that are used can help people to resist them. Anderson and Zimbardo (1984) state that it is important that people avoid making decisions when under stress, and avoid making decisions when in the presence of the person who triggers the stress.

Disobedient Models

As Milgram (1974) demonstrated, having peers who refused to continue led to the lowest levels of obedience. In Asch's study, the presence of just one other group member who disagreed with the majority was enough to reduce conformity to under 10%. Both of these studies show the potential effect on our behaviour if other people in society resist social pressure. These disobedient peers act as role models, making it easier for others to do the same.

In a partial replication of Hofling et al.'s (1966) study of obedience, Rank and Jacobson (1977) found that only 11% of nurses obeyed when they were allowed to check with a colleague. The idea that disobedience is more likely when people are allowed to discuss their course of action was supported by Gamson et al. (1982), who found greater levels or dissent when people were put into groups, and allowed to mix and discuss their ideas.

Experimental evidence supports the strong effect of disobedient models on our behaviour. Children could be encouraged to discuss a problem with friends or guidance staff at school, for example, when they are being pressured into doing something. Telephone helplines may also be valuable.

A limitation is that all too often in the real world, there is no disobedient model to help people resist obedience.

Some real-world evidence goes against the value of disobedient models. During the Second World War, the Nazi soldiers of Reserve Police Battalion 101 murdered Jewish civilians despite being given the option to be assigned to other duties. Despite several 'disobedient models', 80% of the troops continued to carry out the killings (Browning, 1992).

Stress- Part 2

Aims

Friedman and Rosenman proposed that some individuals (Type A) are typically impatient, competitive, time pressured and hostile. Type B individuals lack these characteristics and are generally more relaxed. Friedman and Rosenman predicted that Type As would be less able to cope with stress and therefore more likely to experience CHD.

Method and Procedure

The study recruited 3154 healthy men aged between 39 and 59, living around San Francisco. This was a longitudinal study. The men were first interviewed in 1960, using a set of 25 questions to assess the way that a person typically responds to everyday pressures that would create feelings of impatience, competitiveness or hostility. For example, the participants were asked how they would cope with having to wait in a long queue or working with a slow partner. The interview was conducted in a provocative manner to try to elicit Type A behaviour. For example, the interviewer might speak slowly and hesitantly, so that a Type A person would want to interrupt. The researchers recorded the participants' answers and the way that the participants' responded. Participants were then classes as A1 (Type A), A2 (not fully Type A), X (equal amounts of Type A and B), and B.

Results

1. Eight and a half years later, 257 of the total sample had developed CHD: 178 of these had been assessed as Type A (69%), whereas half as many were Type B (31%).
2. Twenty-two years later, 214 men had died from CHD: 119 were Type A and 95 Type B, a rather less impressive difference.

Conclusion

This offers strong support for the idea that aspects of a person's temperament are associated with CHD. The key factor may be stress. This results from the follow-up study 22 years later suggest that personality type may not be as important as originally suggested. However, it might be that of some of the men took preventative measures after being diagnosed with CHD and that this altered the death rates later recorded.

Evaluation

Friedman and Rosenman's study was the first to show that a psychological trait could be a risk-factor in heart disease, just like smoking or a bad diet. It was a large-scale, well-designed study. However, the participants were all male, making it unclear whether results apply to women. Ivancevich and Matteson (1980) suggested that, rather than being a personality trait, type A behaviour depended on the fit between the person and the environment. A follow-up study 22 years later found a much smaller difference. However, it could be that in their later years, type A men stopped being so hostile and competitive.

Stress- Part 1

The fight-or-flight response is the body's immediate reaction to a threatening situation. This could happen if you are in a fight, feel threatened, or even if you have to give a speech.  Walter Cannon (1927) came up with a theory of the 'fight-or-flight' response. The key idea is that an animal or person reacts to an immediate threat by releasing energy and preparing for action- either self-defence or running away. No matter which option is taken, the body will benefit from energy and oxygen to the muscles, improved vision, reduced tendency to bleed, etc. Because this is the response to an immediate threat, certain longer-term processes can be switched off, for example digestion, as immediate survival is much more important.

The environment of evolutionary adaptiveness (EEA) means the environment in which human ancestors are thought to have lived for most of the evolution of our species. It is thought that humans evolved in the African savannah, and lived in small tribes of hunter-gatherers for approximately two million years. It is only in the last 10.000 years that we have developed agriculture and lived in settled villages and towns. This helps to explain why the stress response can be unhelpful in the modern world.

This response evolved in our evolutionary past to aid survival. It helps to explain why our heart rate rises and we release energy in response to threats. The response is an over-generalisation. Animals such as cats respond differently in a fight, and some animals such as snakes use a 'play dead' strategy in response to a threat. The response only covers immediate threats, and doesn't explain prolonged stress.

Two stress responses:

The sympathetic adrenal- medullary (SAM) system

This process involves the autonomic nervous system, the branch of the PNS which controls the automatic processes of our organs. This has two branches- sympathetic branch, which takes control when the body is stressed or active, and the parasympathetic branch, which takes control when the body is at rest. When the body is stressed, nerves from the sympathetic branch of the ANS stimulate the centre of the adrenal glands to release adrenalin- the hormone which is most closely associated with symptoms of the fight-or-flight response, such as raised heart rate.

The HPA axis

The second process which causes the fight-or-flight response is the action of the endocrine system, the body's network of glands which release hormones. This system is regulated by an area of the midbrain called the hypothalamus. In stress, the hypothalamus instructs the pituitary gland to release a hormone called ATCH, which in turn instructs the adrenal cortex to release stress hormones such as cortisol. These hormones help to release the energy needed to fight stress, and trigger the changes in the body which cause the fight-or-flight response. This set of processes is called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

The way a person reacts to the stress hormone cortisol may also depend on sex. Taylor et al. (2000) found that the hormone oxytocin can reduce cortisol. Oxytocin is affected by sex hormones: it is boosted by oestrogen, whereas testosterone makes it less effective.